An audit by the Texas Education Agency of the Canutillo Independent School District found that efforts to cheat federal accountability measures took place under former Superintendent Damon Murphy, and it alleges that the former Canutillo High School principal participated in the scheme.

Murphy, who resigned under pressure in December, declined to comment because he had not seen the audit.

Reporter Hayley Kappes

Jim Fry, the former high school principal who moved to Washington state last year for a new job, denied that he participated in manipulating student data and said he was being used as a scapegoat.

"I am shocked and I am hurt and I am angry because at no time in my years at Canutillo High School was there a deliberate effort to cheat any federal laws, local laws or policy, and I am proud of the work that we did as a team." Fry said in a phone interview on Saturday.

State auditors reported Fry to its Division of Investigation after they concluded he might have violated state law, rules or policies.

The audit report did not state what Fry allegedly violated.

Fry, who now is the executive director of curriculum, instruction and assessment at the 2,700-student Clarkston School District in Clarkston, Wash., said he plans to contest the audit.

Gene Acuña, a Texas Education Agency spokesman, on Saturday defended the audit report, which was given to Canutillo school district officials on Thursday.

"The final report clearly outlines the investigative steps taken by the Texas Education Agency in reaching each of its findings," Acuña said in an email. "The Canutillo ISD, which self-reported its preliminary findings and cooperated fully during our investigation, has agreed to begin implementation of a comprehensive corrective action plan."

The TEA audit states that the number of limited English-proficient, or LEP, students was manipulated during the 2010 and 2011 school years under the direction of Fry and that the students who were targeted were recent immigrants.

The number of limited English-proficient students did not meet the minimum size for 2010, 2011 or 2012 at Canutillo High School to be considered a subgroup and evaluated through federal adequate yearly progress measures.

Federal standards factor results of the 10th-grade standardized exams. For student subgroups to be considered for federal measures, a school must have 50 or more students in a subgroup enrolled on the test date. The audit did not find any evidence that the number of special-education students was manipulated, which district internal audit findings released in December state.

The audit accuses Fry of directing the English-language facilitator at the high school not to reclassify 13 foreign transfer ninth-grade students "who were going to be moved to 10th grade" to avoid creating a limited English-proficient subgroup.

Responses that Fry gave auditors in the report indicate that Murphy wanted to avoid a limited English-proficient subgroup.

"In October of 2010, Dr. Murphy texted me about our LEP subpopulation graduation rate," Fry told auditors according to the report. "He stated that we needed to fix this either finding more ways for LEP students to earn credits through LUCHA (sic) or to exit them from LEP so that they wouldn't hurt our graduation rate."

LUCHA is a program through the University of Texas at Austin that aims to increase the graduation rate for students learning English by offering a variety of services to school districts.

Fry on Saturday said no further discussion occurred with Murphy regarding the text message.

Murphy was connected to a similar cheating effort at the neighboring El Paso Independent School District, where he was an associate superintendent until 2010.

Fry denied that Murphy directed him to manipulate student subgroups. Fry said there was "pressure to do things," but he would not elaborate what he meant.

"Our efforts on our campus were about giving our students the best opportunity to be successful and earn their high school diploma," Fry said. "There were conversations about LEP. As I told the internal auditor, just because there was a conversation didn't mean there was action based on that conversation."

The audit states that Canutillo High School employees "explained that a number of individuals are able to submit credit changes to the 'transcripting' clerk and not everyone who needed to know, including the teachers, was always aware of the credit changes."

The audit also identified problems with the district's credit recovery methods, which allows students to make up credits for classes they failed.

Federal prosecutors have said Fierro was having an affair with former EPISD Superintendent Lorenzo García, whom she had worked under at EPISD.

During a hearing in the summer, prosecutors said García used his connections with Murphy to get Fierro a job at the Canutillo school district.

García is serving 3å years in federal prison after he admitted leading a cheating scheme at EPISD and directing a $450,000 contract to a former mistress.

"When asked about credit recovery, the executive director of curriculum and instruction stated, 'I don't know É I'm not sure how they make up credits,' " the audit states. "Further, the executive director could not clearly articulate the grade classification system at (Canutillo high). The executive director had little information with regard to the procedures of the LEP/Bilingual and Special Education program."

Fierro declined to comment on the audit.

The Canutillo district was not sanctioned based on the TEA audit findings, but the report states that the agency may recommend one or more sanctions authorized by the Texas Education Code while the agency monitors the district's execution of a plan to correct some areas.

Canutillo will contract with the Region 19 and Region 20 education service centers to create regulations for awarding credits and testing students.

The plan will lead to personnel action, staff reassignments, revision of job descriptions and training on proper procedures, Reveles Acosta said.

Administrators have started examining student records to determine which students might have been harmed by being put in the wrong grade, school board President Armando Rodriguez said on Saturday.

"We want to make sure if any student was affected by decisions by our administration that affected their ability to graduate or whatever it may be," Rodriguez said. "If it affected it in any way, we will address it."

Further internal findings about the cheating scheme will be released on Tuesday at a special school board meeting.

The school board will discuss in closed session "personnel matters regarding possible recommendation for non-renewal of the term contracts of certain employees and possible staff reassignments."

Rodriguez declined to give details about employees facing the loss of their job or a reassignment.

Rodriguez said the school board responded to the cheating allegations by launching an internal audit and taking action against Murphy. "It's kind of sad when you have bad leadership at the top," Rodriguez said. "It's so frustrating when you find a leader who cares about themselves more than they care about kids."

Hayley Kappes may be reached at hkappes@elpasotimes.com; 546-6168. Follow her on Twitter @hayleykappes